ROFL! Yup, the "I swallowed a basketball" look :-P Poor Luka was so full he couldn't even walk right. He just wanted to sit there and be pitiful. He actually wasn't "right" for about three days. He really had me worried for a little while. But other than him being miserable, everything else seemed to be functioning normally so I tried not to worry about him.

And yeah, I hate the hip bones sticking out. It always scares me when they are that thin, but some just seem to have such a high metabolism while they are growing that they just won't fill out.

 Quote: angela burrell

At 8 weeks of age, a puppy is at 20% of his adult weight.

My pups were 17.5 lbs at 8 weeks and I expect them to reach ~80 lbs.

Hope that helps. And thanks for the link Sandy, I'll be using that myself.

I would just like to ad that this is a very rough guide and not entirely accurate. I've had dogs that were 13 pounds at 8 weeks grow to be 95-100, and dogs that were 20 pounds at 8 weeks grow to be 140. Shepherds, pits, a dobe, ambulls, mixed breeds galore - best way to tell is the rate at which they grow, the physical type of the dog also.

A fair amount of dogs, I will not say most though, tend to grow the most between 8 weeks and 6 months, then it tapers off a bit up to 9 months, and slows again until a year, then most of the additional growing is filling out with minimal height gain. Taller breeds grow upwards first and then fill out, bully breeds grow up then out and up then out in a strange way. The rate of growth week to week and physical structure will help determine the adult size of the dog. I may just be lucky but I'm rarely off by more than 10 pounds in my guesstimates of a pups adult size.

With mixed breeds you can't really tell and they have the ability to surprise you, like Duke who was 19 pounds at just over 12 weeks and is currently 78 pounds at almost 9 months. He was fed and kept very poorly prior to me getting him. I guessed him to top out at around 80 adult weight but at the rate he's going (already a bit over 27" tall) he will likely top out as an adult at around 95 or maybe more. He still has another couple of inches left in him, he is a Dobe/GSD and will be larger than either of his parents.

Not to say Angela is wrong, but I have not had or been around a pup/dog that stuck to that %

Thankyou Jennifer :-)

I hope he gets huge, rofl :-P I'll love him anyway, but the bigger the better IMO.

I hope he's one who doesn't fit into that percentage, that would put him at about 65 lbs, smaller than my shepherd. Considering he gained only 2.5 pounds in the first 3 weeks and that was mostly filling out, he didn't get very much bigger ... and then gained 2 pounds last week, maintaining condition and actually growing ... I'm thinking he'll gets bigger than the percentage would imply. He has really shot up in the last week, if his legs weren't so thick (connected to HUGE feet) he would look really gangly right now.

I just can't wait to see how he turns out in size, looks and temperament. I've mainly owned purebreds, except for a few rescues I rehomed, and can usually make a fairly accurate guess as to how a dog will turn out. I think this guy will be full of surprises. Thus far I have been very pleased with him. He is a little goofball! And has nerves of steel!

And to Jennifer Lee, I was just reading in your clicker post about your puppy's "woo-woo" Luka does it too, lol. He seems to have gotten the "nordic backtalk" as I always called it. I love it :-P

Elizabeth, there is a good saying" a hungry pup is a healthy pup" I think charts are nice but really look at your pup and if he shows a little ribs it's OK, if he eats good , potty is normal, has good appetite, plays , you are on the right track. When it comes to pups on RAW, fed many in my life time, you simply look at your pup increase your feeding gradually, pups have a growth spur , they slow down at a certain stage, simply judge your pup by how he looks...don't rush his growth.
I have to say , who are the idiots that breed a pit with a Husky...so pathetic.

Mom's a pit mix, dad's a Malamute mix. I don't believe it was an intentional breeding at all. Normally I would say, crap happens. People have accidental litters. But I won't defend these people at all, they don't "put the dogs together" to "breed" them, but they also do nothing to prevent it. They have both the parents, both are unfixed. They also have a pup from a previous litter out of the pair, also unfixed. He'll probably be the father of the next litter (he's getting on 6 months old) and Momma is about 9 years old. I won't get into my opinion on them owning dogs. Especially since most of their pups were gone by 6 weeks old (which was probably best for "mom" since she looked like a skeleton while nursing those pups).

As far as the mix? Thus far he's been great. He's intelligent, he's responsive, his nerves are good. One of his sisters, however, was a dominant, pushy, nasty little fart even at 6 weeks old. She would attack her brother (not my pup, but one who was "adopted" by the same people) and bite him until he rolled over on his back screaming and continue until she was bored. She terrorized him. She's going to be a handful and then some. The people who were taking her have 3 small kids *cringes* and no dog experience *bigger cringe* Luka is going to be fun (I like a challenge) but I don't believe he's going to be a problem. Now if you ask my Grandfather, the dog is going to grow up and "eat us all." He subscribes to the pit hype and has a personal grudge against Malamutes.

I'm not trying to rush his growth at all. I want him to grow slow and steady like they should. I just want to make sure he's growing like he should, especially since he didn't have the best start.

I get it, I know you don't condone the breeding but you cannot say that they did not put them together! That is exactly what they did, and knowing they would breed! OK I'll get off that subject because I have a habit of going off on that type of crap. I sure hope you got your pup for free . Anyways, at least one pup is in good hands... yours. I think as far as the growth , watch it and see how it looks , it's very simply , sometimes charts are off a bit so i would go by what the pups looks like and give him the right amount of bones in his diet, he'll be fine..

Elisabeth: Do you have a picture of him? Love to see the little guy.

LOL, yes he was free :-P And an impulse, I have to admit. I've been wanting a working line shepherd pup, but am not in the position right now to get one. Hopefully soon though.

And yes, I understand the frustration with irresponsible breeding, I am the same way. I too could get off on this, but I'll refrain as well.

Sharon: I am working on getting some pics of all my dogs together for a sig line pic. Hopefully will be up soon. He looks amazingly (not exactly, of course) like a GSD puppy (probably why I fell in love with the little guy).